Blue Hills Hospital, a DMHAS (Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services) detox facility in Hartford, is on the chopping block. Activists at the state and city level, like Mark Jenkins, executive director of GHHRC (Greater Hartford Harm Reduction Coalition) say the hospital serves a vital need in the city, and that the state’s proposal--to relocate the hospital’s beds to another facility in Middletown--would hurt the people who rely on the service.

Blue Hills Hospital, a DMHAS (Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services) detox facility in Hartford, is on the chopping block. Activists at the state and city level, like Mark Jenkins, executive director of GHHRC (Greater Hartford Harm Reduction Coalition) say the hospital serves a vital need in the city, and that the state’s proposal--to relocate the hospital’s beds to another facility in Middletown--would hurt the people who rely on the service.

It wasn't a drawn-out decision made after days of tortured debate. She simply got up at 2 a.m. and walked to the detox facility at Blue Hills Hospital, housed on Vine Street in the Capitol Region Mental Health Center. It wasn't a long trip.

"I made a split-second choice to get clean, and thank God that the hospital was right there for me to get to," Lewis-Williams said recently. "Thank God it was."

But, if state officials have their way, Blue Hills Hospital won't be "right there" for much longer: a recent budget proposal would move the hospital's 21 detox beds to Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown as a cost-saving measure.

"It's very important for this service to stay in the community, where the people who need it already are," she said. "If someone all of a sudden gets up one morning and says 'I don't want to do this anymore,' what addict do you know that has bus fare? What addict do you know even has a cell phone to call someone for help to go to treatment?"

On the night she decided to get clean, Lewis-Williams was denied at first, told there was no room for her. She wept in the waiting room, attracting the attention of a staff member. He talked to her, and within an hour she was occupying a bed as it opened.

Cloe Poisson / Hartford Courant

Mark Jenkins, executive director of GHHRC (Greater Hartford Harm Reduction Coalition) stands in front of Blue Hills Hospital, a DMHAS (Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services) detox facility in Hartford, that is being threatened with closure and moving the beds to another facility in Middletown.

Mark Jenkins, executive director of GHHRC (Greater Hartford Harm Reduction Coalition) stands in front of Blue Hills Hospital, a DMHAS (Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services) detox facility in Hartford, that is being threatened with closure and moving the beds to another facility in Middletown.

(Cloe Poisson / Hartford Courant)

That was 21 years ago Friday, and as Lewis-Williams proudly notes, relapse isn't part of her story. In fact, after getting clean, she interned at the same facility while she completed her bachelor's in substance-abuse counseling.

She eventually worked at Blue Hills full-time for five years. And it's still a presence in her life: she's lost count of how many friends and family members have gone there for treatment.

No Support in Hartford

Officials argue that the proposal is not a loss of service, and would generate more than $900,000 in savings in the first year and about $1.2 million in the second.

The plan would consolidate 24-hour substance abuse services between the two facilities, adding the 21 Blue Hills detox beds to the 20 already at CVH, bringing the total there to 41, according to the Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Blue Hills' remaining 21 substance abuse rehabilitation beds will be privatized.

"There's not going to be any loss of beds. The state will have the same amount of beds, they will only be located in a different place," Mary Kate Mason, a department spokeswoman, said. "There's not a service reduction – it's just relocating the service."

There's a precedent for this proposal: DMHAS tried to shutter Blue Hills in 1997. It was thwarted by an outpouring of state and local support. The issue reared again in 2002 and was similarly defeated amid a backlash of opposition.

Cloe Poisson / Hartford Courant

Blue Hills Hospital, a DMHAS (Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services) detox facility in Hartford, is being threatened with closure and moving the beds to another facility in Middletown.

Blue Hills Hospital, a DMHAS (Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services) detox facility in Hartford, is being threatened with closure and moving the beds to another facility in Middletown.

(Cloe Poisson / Hartford Courant)

History is repeating itself a third time as activists and community leaders vehemently oppose this latest attempt to move services from Blue Hills.

"It's the worst idea in the budget for Hartford. I don't support it," State Sen. Doug McCrory said. McCrory, who represented the area for years as a state representative recently won the special election to fill the state senate seat.

He noted that in conversations with the other members of the Hartford delegation, no one voiced support for DMHAS' proposal.

The projected cost savings come at the time when the state has seen a staggering increase in fatal drug overdoses, largely attributed to opioids including heroin and fentanyl, a potent synthetic.

Hartford has been among the cities hardest hit by the epidemic. Data from the chief medical examiner shows that outside of the city's two major hospitals, 43 people died from drug overdoses in 2016, up from the 37 who died the year before, many of which involved opioids.

Further, statistics from DMHAS show that Hartford has the most people accessing department-funded opioid treatment of any city or town in the state. In the last fiscal year, 1,173 people from Hartford received this treatment, a number that has remained relatively steady in the past several fiscal years.

In a two-year period that ended last month, statistics from DMHAS show that Blue Hills, with 21 detox beds, served 1,976 people. CVH, with 20 detox beds, served 1,957 people.

"You don't know how many lives you might save if that facility stays open," McCrory said. "With the issues with opioids and heroin right now, we should be expanding."

Cloe Poisson / Hartford Courant

Mark Jenkins, executive director of GHHRC (Greater Hartford Harm Reduction Coalition) near the entrance of Blue Hills Hospital, a DMHAS (Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services) detox facility in Hartford, that is being threatened with closure and moving the beds to another facility in Middletown.

Mark Jenkins, executive director of GHHRC (Greater Hartford Harm Reduction Coalition) near the entrance of Blue Hills Hospital, a DMHAS (Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services) detox facility in Hartford, that is being threatened with closure and moving the beds to another facility in Middletown.

(Cloe Poisson / Hartford Courant)

City leaders have echoed that sentiment. At its meeting Feb. 27, Hartford's City Council unanimously approved a resolution imploring the General Assembly to keep the Blue Hills detox beds.

"Transferring those 21 beds to CVH will leave no facility to service people with mental health issues and substance abuse, not just in the city, but in the region," said Council President Thomas "TJ" Clarke II, the resolution's author. "Just to say that services won't be reduced, that they'll just be transferred to Middletown—there is no possible way I can imagine someone that lives within the city of Hartford, within that neighborhood, that will be able to obtain those services at CVH."

'People are going to die'

Few understand that need better than Mark Jenkins, one of the most outspoken opponents to relocating the Blue Hills beds.

"People are going to die. People are going to suffer unnecessarily and others will die to save money," Jenkins said. "I can't say that with any more seriousness from the gut: People are going to die."

On any given day, state officials say the state-run detox beds, currently split between Blue Hills and CVH, run at 95 percent capacity.

Cloe Poisson / Hartford Courant

Blue Hills Hospital, a DMHAS (Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services) detox facility in Hartford, is being threatened with closure and moving the beds to another facility in Middletown.

Blue Hills Hospital, a DMHAS (Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services) detox facility in Hartford, is being threatened with closure and moving the beds to another facility in Middletown.

(Cloe Poisson / Hartford Courant)

"If I call to Blue Hills right now, I get a live human being. You are not getting a person in the next five minutes [in Middletown] unless the stars line up," Jenkins added. "I've been making referrals to these agencies for years, and Middletown has always, always been the most difficult to access."

Jenkins spoke from the perspective of someone working in the capitol city, 18 miles from CVH's front door. At Blue Hills, on the other hand, clients he's worked with have been able to "walk in and present themselves."

"You cannot do that in Middletown. You can't do that," Jenkins said.

Mason, the DMHAS spokeswoman, said conversations were had about the issue of access.

"When we were talking about this plan, we did talk about if that would create barriers for folks in Hartford," she said. "We do know that [the service region] has a current transportation program ... We fully expect that that program will continue. People who would've gone to Blue Hills will have transportation available to CVH or a private, nonprofit provider."

"Here's the city with the largest population of users and we're pulling back services?" said Thomas A. Kirk Jr., a former commissioner of DMHAS. "The first step in treatment is detox, and having that service geographically close is simply essential. As far as an addict in need is concerned, Middletown may as well be Minnesota."

In Kirk's experience, there exists a "hidden group" of supporters who help willing addicts find treatment. Family and community members "whose lived experience reflects knowledge of how the 'system' really works" and advocate for drug users to find treatment.

"People will not look to Middletown as a first solution; they'll look to the community around them," Kirk said. "The beds' absence opens a gap, and people in Hartford are very likely to get lost."